This invention relates to an opening and resealing device for cans having an aluminium top. The invention specifically relates to opening devices known as pop-tops of the antilitter type commonly used for beverage cans. The opening and resealing device is constructed with a sealing lip incorporated in the underside of the operating tab to form a stopper member to reseal the container.
The operating tab is conventionally used for separating a prescored portion of the can top from the remaining top and depressing the flap that is formed into the can without disconnection of the flap from the can. The tab is conventionally connected to a rivet pin at the center of the can top and operates as a lever with a manual lifting portion on one side of the pin and a reacting detent portion on the other side of the pin, which engages the edge of the scored flap for depressing the flap into the can. Once opened, no provision on the tab mechanism has been provided for resealing the can. Certain plastic lid covers engageable with the circumferential rim of the can top are available for covering the entire top of the can and resealing the contents. Generally for the type of can usually employing a pop-top opening device, such covers are not provided with the can, and the user is most often left without a resealing means and must discard unconsumed contents with the can.
The opening and sealing device of this invention improves the mechanism conventionally used for opening beverage-type pop-top cans and integrally incorporates a sealing means into an altered opening tab.
The resealing means comprises a projecting sealing lip, preferably a semideformable composition that is integrally incorporated on the underside of the tab. After an aperture has been formed in the can top by lifting the tab causing the scored portion of the top to be depressed, the tab is pivoted 180.degree. on the rivet pin centering the sealing lip over the formed aperture. The tap is then downwardly pressed, engaging the lip with the formed aperture and sealing the can top.